Investing.com – U.S. stock index futures fell on Sunday evening after weekly gains on Wall Street as President Donald Trump threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on Colombia, while investors turned cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve interest rate decision, and inflation readings due this week.
S&P 500 Futures fell 0.5% to 6,103.0 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures declined 1.2% to 21,646.25 points by 18:45 ET (23:45 GMT). Dow Jones Futures inched 0.2% lower to 44,535.0 points.
Trump imposes tariffs, sanctions on Colombia
On Sunday, Trump announced that he would impose sanctions, and hefty tariffs on Colombia after the Latin American country refused to allow two U.S. repatriation flights carrying deported individuals to land, a directive attributed to Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro.
Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Colombia, effective immediately, and would raise it to 50% next week.
In addition to the tariffs, the U.S. administration has enacted a travel ban and revoked visas for Colombian government officials and their affiliates.
In response, Colombia threatened a 50% tariff on U.S. goods. The new tariffs are anticipated to have substantial economic implications, especially for Colombian exports such as petroleum, coffee, and flowers, which heavily rely on the U.S. market.
Trump has earlier announced that tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China, and the European Union could be announced on Feb. 1.
Investors cautious ahead of Fed meeting, inflation data
Investors are exhibiting caution as they await the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy meeting due later in the week
Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation – PCE price index data, and advance GDP estimates for the fourth quarter are due this week.
Additionally, December weekly jobless claims and January consumer confidence were also on tap.
China’s DeepSeek pressures AI stocks, major earnings awaited
In the technology sector, China’s AI startup DeepSeek has unveiled its latest model, R1, which demonstrates performance comparable to leading U.S. models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT but at a significantly reduced cost.
This advancement poses a competitive threat to established players in the AI hardware space, notably NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), which has seen its stock decline in response.
Nvidia stock fell more than 3% on Friday and is expected to face pressure from this announcement.
However, Wall Street recorded weekly gains last week, largely around optimism about Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s stellar earnings and the announcement of the Stargate initiative.
Last week, the S&P 500 recorded 1.7% weekly gains to end at 6,101.24 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.2% for the week to 44,424.25, and the NASDAQ Composite added 1.7%.
The market is also bracing for earnings reports from major technology companies, including Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). These reports are expected to provide further insights into the health of the tech sector and guide investor sentiment in the coming days.
